494 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



knowing how to build fuch cities as Axum. I wonder a 

 man's underflanding does not revolt againft fuch abfurdi- 

 ties in the moment he is ftating them. 



The Abyffinians, while at war, ufe tents and encamp- 

 ments, to fecure the liberty of movements and changing of 

 ground, and defend themfelves, when ftationary, from the 

 inclemency of the weather. But no tent has, I believe, yet 

 been invented that could Hand in the fields in that coun- 

 try from June to September ; and they have not yet form- 

 ed an idea of Abyflinia who can fuppofe this. 



I conceive it is ignorance of the language which has led 

 thefe learned men into this miflake. The Abyffinians call 

 a houfe, {landing by itfelf, allotted to any particular pur- 

 pofe, Bet. So Bet Negus is a palace, or the houfe of a king; 

 Bet Chriftian is a church, or a houfe for Chriflian worfhip ; 

 whilil Bet Mocha is a prifon, or houfe under ground. But 

 houfes in towns or villages are called Taintes, from the 

 Abyffinian word Tain, to fleep, lie down, reft, or repofe. I 

 fuppofe the fimilitude of this word to tents has drawn thefe 

 learned critics to believe, that, inftead of towns, thefe were 

 only collections of tents. But ftill I think, no one acquaint- 

 ed with the Abyffinian language, or without being fo, would 

 be fo void of underflanding as to believe, a people that had 

 -built Axum of ftone, fhould endure, for ages after, a tropi- 

 cal winter in bare tents. 



The fifth thing that fixes falfehood upon Poncet is, that 

 he defcribes delicious valleys beyond European ideas ; beau- 

 tiful plains, covered with odoriferous trees and fhrubs, to 

 be everywhere in his way on the entrance of Abyffinia.; 

 i whereas, 



